Stories by Paul Krill

U.S. online sales up again

Separate studies detailed this week reveal that U.S. online sales climbed again in July, and that Internet spending has rebounded from a lull prompted by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

BroadVision promotes e-business self-service initiative

BroadVision executives on Wednesday stressed that self-service is the way to maximize return on investment in e-business efforts and dramatically reduce costs.

Solectron makes CRM push

Manufacturing and supply-chain management services company Solectron plans to acquire Stream International, a CRM (customer relationship management) vendor, the two companies announced on Tuesday.

RightNow to help gauge customers' feelings

Customer relationship management software vendor RightNow Technologies Inc. wants to help enterprises get in touch with their customers' feelings.

Despite slumping economy, e-commerce still growing

The number of Americans buying online will double from 64.1 million as of 2000 to 130 million by 2005, according to a report by research firm eMarketer Inc.

A bet on technology

Harrah's Entertainment is known as a high-stakes player in the glitzy world of hotel casinos and gambling. But in contrast to the bright lights of Las Vegas, the company's Web presence was dull and static and did little more than house communications and financial investment information. Furthermore, several of the company's individual properties had developed their own marketing-oriented sites, leaving the company without a unified face on the Web.

Pivotal partners with Intel on CRM

Pivotal on Wednesday joined forces with chipmaker Intel to boost the Pivotal Demand Chain Management CRM (customer relationship management) suite on Intel architectures via testing and optimization services.

EDS to offer E.piphany CRM suite

EDS and customer relationship management (CRM) software vendor E.piphany on Wednesday are set to publicly announce an arrangement whereby EDS will resell E.piphany's E.5 suite.

PeopleSoft connecting with disconnected PCs

Looking to broaden access to CRM (customer relationship management) applications to those outside the corporate office, PeopleSoft Inc. on Aug. 27 plans to formally unveil mobile extensions to its Sales and Field Service applications to enable disconnected access.

Siebel to tout eBusiness 2001 platform at conference

CRM (customer relationship management) and e-business applications vendor Siebel Systems Inc., at its Worldwide User Week conference in Chicago in early October, plans to detail its upcoming Siebel eBusiness 2001 applications platform, which will feature enhanced forecasting and integration of various phases of customer interactions.

Dirty data plagues CRM deployments

Customer relationship management (CRM) has become a hot-button topic, with companies deploying systems with hopes of providing better service and, in turn, boosting revenues.

Speech recognition tops call center wish list

Speech recognition technology and automated e-mail response were at the top of the list of sought-after technologies in a survey of 100 call center executive managers by researcher Frost & Sullivan Inc.

Oracle upgrading contract management package

Eyeing a growing market opportunity, Oracle this month plans to release an upgrade to its contract management software, which helps companies better manage contracts and potentially mine new sales opportunities.

XML database takes hold

Looking to provide an alternative to storing XML tags in relational databases, Ixia Inc. this month plans to release Version 2.0 of its Textml database.

PeopleSoft readies customer behavior modeling app

PeopleSoft Inc. on Aug. 28 plans to unveil a Customer Behavior Modeling module as the latest addition to its CRM platform, company officials said.